I got lost leading Scotland out at 2026 World Cup opening venue - now I'm dreaming of going back

It would be unusual, certainly, for a country to have this distinction in successive World Cups for which they have qualified. Scotland, of course, took on Brazil in the Stade de France in 1998 in front of the watching hundreds of millions on television. They also kicked off Euro 2024 against Germany though perhaps the less said about that the better.

A lot needs to fall into place before they are climbing the famous spiral staircase leading up to the pitch from the dressing rooms at Estadio Azteca – or as it’s currently less poetically known, Estadio Banorte, after a Mexican bank. McKenna will know the way this time.

He has recalled getting lost on the occasion, very early in his international career, when Alex McLeish handed him the honour of skippering Scotland in a friendly against Mexico. He was only 21 and could be forgiven for not knowing what door to lead the team through. It was a different one to the one they had used for the warm-up. ‘What a start this is, I can’t even lead them out the right way!’ he remembered thinking.

Scotland’s navigational skills need to be more refined to ensure they are in the mix to return to Mexico City or indeed anywhere where World Cup games are being played next summer. No one is fussy. Just getting there is the main thing and it’s within their grasp. A point in Piraeus against Greece on Saturday together with a win over Denmark at Hampden would be enough.

McKenna is keen to have the chance of walking out in Mexico City or elsewhere again next summer. Although he stresses it’s about focusing on obtaining what’s required against Greece in the first instance, he wouldn’t be human if thoughts hadn’t already started drifting towards participating in the greatest sporting show on earth.

“Going across to America, the size of the stadiums are going to be absolutely massive,” he said. “They will probably be 80,000, 90,000, even 100,000 some of them. They are huge. The amount of Scotland fans that will be able to get in those stadiums would be absolutely incredible.

“We will obviously focus on these two games first and foremost. But obviously in the back of your mind as a player is the thought of walking out in North America representing Scotland at a World Cup. We’ve all dreamed of it.”

‘Gaffer’s been so loyal to all of us’

There were around 70,000 present when Scotland were the slightly wallflower-ish guests at a farewell party the hosts were throwing prior to leaving for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

McKenna was winning just his fourth cap – he is now on 47 – in Mexico. It was the second match of a two-game South American tour that saw Peru faced in Lima amid similarly excited scenes given they, too, were bound for the World Cup. Scotland were in another re-building phase and travelled with a somewhat rump squad that included goalkeeper Scott Bain, who has just been recalled to the international scene after an absence of six years.

McKenna, who has just turned 29, has been in and around the squad for the duration. He is due to win his 50th cap sometime in the early part of next year. It might come in a play-off, it could come in a World Cup warm-up.

He is grateful to Steve Clarke for sticking by him during a peripatetic career that now sees him turning out for Dinamo Zagreb, the first Scot to do so. His previous port of call was Las Palmas while he’s also played for Copenhagen in Denmark, Scotland’s opponents on Tuesday night. Although starring regularly for Zagreb, not every move has worked out since leaving Aberdeen for Nottingham Forest. He was frozen out completely at the City Ground due to a contract issue. Nevertheless, the Kirriemuir-raised McKenna has quietly racked up caps.

“I think the gaffer's been so loyal to all of us in his time in charge here,” he reflected. “I think there's been times, myself included, where some of us have not been playing at club level, but he continues to put us in the squad and trusts us and gives us minutes on the park.

“He also led us to two Euros, so we've all got to be thankful to him. Our performances on the pitch are the only way we can really thank him for that, and trying to qualify for a World Cup would be a great way to do it.”

‘We almost needed a wake-up call’

McKenna’s chances of playing tomorrow night might improve if Clarke elects to play three centre halves, as some think is possible. In each of the last two windows the defender has been excluded from the starting XI in the first match before coming into the side for the second game of the double headers. He claims the manager hasn’t explained his thinking. “He doesn’t have to,” he said. McKenna might wish he hadn’t been called into the side for the last outing against Belarus, when Scotland came close to blowing their chance of securing a play-off place. Unusually, Clarke was hugely critical of the players.

“There's been times in the past where the standards have dropped, but he remains positive, reassuring,” McKenna reflected.

“Whereas in the last camp, in the Belarus game especially, we were so far off the performance levels expected that we almost needed a wake-up call. We got the three points and it keeps the campaign alive, but he realises how big the opportunity is that we have.

“By saying what he said, he doesn't want us to recreate that sort of performance that ultimately costs us the chance to go to a World Cup. He was absolutely spot-on with everything he said to us - it was probably needed.”